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Teddy Roosevelt must be rolling over in his grave. Elkhorn Ranch, where the great Republican conservationist sat on his porch overlooking the Little Missouri River and conceived his then-progressive theories of conservation, is at risk of being despoiled by fracking.

Now sitting in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, you’d assume that Roosevelt's “home ranch” (as he called it) was protected from fossil fuel development. But the view from Elkhorn could soon be dominated by a new gas well staked just 100 feet from the site, a new bridge over the river and a new road to service nearby fracking fields. “Astronomers at Theodore Roosevelt National Park – which once offered some of the nation’s darkest, most pristine night skies – also see a new constellation of flares from nearby fracking wells,” writes the National Parks Conservation Association.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is not alone. Around the country – from Big Sky Country to the water gaps and rivers of the East – National Parks and recreation areas are being threatened by rampant, fracking-driven oil and gas development.

On Monday, the State Department’s public comment period closed for the Keystone XL pipeline draft environmental impact statement. Over one million comments were submitted by citizens opposed to the tar sands pipeline. Then came the most damning comment of them all: from the Environmental Protection Agency.

That EPA letter certainly played a part – as did sustained grassroots advocacy efforts, exposes on conflicts of interest between State and the pipeline’s profiteers, and relentless debunking of false jobs and energy security promises – in the State Department’s move to punt the decision for a year, take a fresh look at the proposals, and go back to the drawing board to create a new supplemental environmental impact statement.

Remember the climate disruption tax? It’s the public cost, actually paid by American taxpayers, of climate-driven extreme weather events. For the first time, the smart economists and public policy thinkers out there are actually crunching numbers and putting forth some jaw-dropping costs of these droughts and floods and superstorms.

It’s a fancy and technical way of saying that there is a price of carbon emissions. A price that isn’t being paid on the front end by primary consumers of fossil fuels, and certainly isn’t being paid by the fossil fuel companies themselves. Rather, it’s paid by American taxpayers, no matter how responsible any particular individual is for the problem.

The good folks at the Climate Reality Project released a video, narrated by the great Reggie Watts, that illustrates these costs in a way that a bland old blog post never could. While the video doesn’t apply the “climate disruption tax” label specifically, the principle it’s talking about it one in the same. Check it out:

This week, Public Citizen released a report that piles on a whole lot more evidence to support this fact. In fact, it makes a rock solid economic case that construction of the pipeline would almost certainly result in an increase in gas prices in the American Midwest. An increase.

For the report, titled “America Can’t Afford the Keystone Pipeline” (PDF download here), Public Citizen analyzed an abundance of data and found that average U.S. gas prices over the past year would have been as much as 3.5-percent lower had there not been any exports of oil. Because Keystone XL would primarily be an export pipeline (as we’ve reported again and again, and as Canadian Energy Minister Ken Hughes has recently admitted), all evidence points to the fact that construction of the pipeline would actually increase gas prices.

ExxonMobil is getting defensive about its response plans for the tar sands pipeline spill in Arkansas. The companytook to Twitter this afternoon to respond to what it called “allegations” that Exxon isn't liable for the full costs of cleaning up their tar sands crude spill in Mayflower, Arkansas.

Here's the tweet from @exxonmobil sent in response to critics who pointed out that, because of a majorloophole that needs to be closed,bitumen is not considered crude oil, and therefore tar sands pipeline operators like Exxon aren't required to pay into the oil spill cleanup fund.

In Greek legend, everytime the winged horse Pegasus struck his hoof to the Earth, an “inspiring spring burst forth.” Unfortunately for residents in Mayflower, Arkansas, when the Pegasus pipeline ruptured, the only thing bursting forth was a nasty tar sands oil spill.

Here’s what you need to know about the spill, with links to some reporting on this awful event, which at very least ruined the holiday weekends of many Mayflower, Arkansas residents, many of whom didn’t even know the pipeline was running through their neighborhood.

Seeing as this contest was created by a state agency, every public school in Utah was given this flyer (PDF) with instructions for how to participate.

Fortunately, it’s up to every school to decide whether to participate, and at least some Utahns are outraged at the idea. Colby Poulson, a parent in Farmington, called the contest “propaganda” in a letter to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Why is the state backing an “Earth Day” contest that celebrates fossil fuels, while completely ignoring the adverse effects that their use and extraction can too often have on our air quality, water quality, public lands and the other organisms we share the world with? Shouldn’t Earth Day be about championing things that can help reverse the negative impact of our dependence on fossil fuels?

Frankly, I’m disgusted that the state is backing propaganda like this in our schools.

Fourteen cars of the 94-car, mile-long train (stop and picture that for a moment) left the tracks during an emergency braking maneuver, the cause of which is yet unclear. The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting an immediate review.

According to Reuters, “the company did not comment as to what kind of crude the train was carrying,” and Canadian Pacific spokesman Ed Greenberg said he “did not know if the oil that spilled was tar sands oil.”

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE